Expectations
Unrealistic expectations! Those words were printed on the TV screen in a time out during the first half of the Blazer /Clippers game on Friday night. Too many new players, no training camp.
Oh, the pain of the last driving shot in the basket. The Blazers lost by one point! One point! Did you anticipate that?
Expectations – what do they do for us? Sometimes we’re gratified, sometimes surprised, sometimes terribly disappointed – even devastated.
Expectations can lift us up or take us down – we grow into them. Parents and teachers who hold high expectations of a child are often rewarded. Conversely low expectations are also fulfilled. We know from experiments and life experience that people often live into expectations held for them. Expectations have a big impact on our behavior.
Expectations can also blind us to what is really happening. When we hold certain expectations, we collect the evidence to support them and don’t see or discount contrary evidence. Part of the maturing process is to see and hold complexity; to use expectations for the greater good; to recognize ambiguous evidence. How we hold ourselves as a worshipping, serving and inclusive community will affect how we treat each other and how we are seen in the community.
Interesting experiments have shown that the impact of our thoughts and expectations about aging definitely affect our health and vitality.
Here’s a small example – can our eye sight be affected by our expectations? A clinical psychologist asked this question. She conducted experiments using eye charts. Most of us are familiar with these. The Big E at the top and then gradually the lines become smaller and smaller. We expect that at some point we can no longer read the line. She created charts with the smallest fonts at the top. In this case people expected that at some point they would be able to read the line. Indeed, those tested actually read smaller fonts when the chart was this way than when they were tested with the standard chart. However, they thought they did better on the standard chart.
How does this tie into our scripture readings and Palm Sunday?
Palm Sunday is all about EXPECTATIONS. What is going on in the scripture reading? In both of the readings (Mark 14:12-25 and Mark 11: 1-11) Jesus asked his disciples to carry out his instructions – to find the colt and to find a room for the Passover meal. Each time it happened exactly as Jesus had told them even in the small details.
What are the expectations as Jesus makes his way on the colt toward Jerusalem? We haven’t had the life experiences in this country to fully understand the deep desire and expectation of the people who shouted, “Blessed is the coming of the kingdom of our ancestor David” What a liberation that would be! We can’t really grasp what life was like for the people who were occupied and oppressed by the Romans. What was it like to have your life energy and resources used to support the building projects of the Romans? What was it like to be taxed to support the Roman occupation, the soldiers, the life style of the rulers, the continuing conquest of other lands. What was it like for your life to have no value unless you were a Roman citizen?
Would Jesus bring an end to all of this? Would it mean a return to the glory of the days of David as King of the Jews? Jesus was for them this new King of the Jews. They expected life to be very different, to be so much better, to be freer, to be glorious. Even those closest to Jesus could not take in what he was saying about dying a torturous death, about doing things in such a different way than any of them expected. What he said was too far from their experience and hopes. They could not stay awake for it. They could not stand with him.
Please read Mark 14 and 15 this week. Read it aloud in your family or with others.
Be aware of the expectations – the great range of expectations that show up in the different factions of people. Read with a beginner mind. Look for things that are new to you even though the story is so familiar.
What are your expectations of the Messiah? How do these impact your life? What are we living into and where are we blind to what is happening?
When my granddaughter was five, I was visiting her family in NY. For her birthday, I put on my “Bunny Mother” outfit – an apron with a bunny on the front, bunny slippers on my feet and bunny ears on my head. I had a wand with ribbon streamers that I ran over the head of someone asking for a wish – a nurturing wish. “Aviva, what is your wish for your birthday?” Without hesitation, she said, “a pack of bubble gum and the coming of the Messiah”
I was stunned. She was on to something — something close at hand and something of vast importance. In my apron pocket, I had a piece of kosher bubble gum (not sure how it got there) I gave that to her and said, “Well I can give you the bubble gum. You will have to speak to God about the Messiah” Aviva had already absorbed the Jewish message that the Messiah is coming and could come at any time.
In Christianity, the Messiah has come, and we await the second coming which could happen at any time. Although Christ warned about predicting the day or hour, early Christians expected the return within their generation. Through the last 2000 years, people have predicted a date for the coming and have convinced others to prepare for it. We had one of these just last October. Billboards went up, newspapers talked about it. The day came and went.
Are we expecting it to happen at a specific time and place and so far, nothing has met that expectation? What if that blinds us to other possibilities? What if, it is happening all along in many places in many moments? Could Pentecost – which we count as the beginning of the church – could that, be the beginning of the second coming – the inflowing of Holy Spirit?
Could we be experiencing moments of it and not count them because it doesn’t fit our expectation? What if “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” isn’t about two separate places in the distant future. What if, thy kingdom has been and is coming on earth right now – in us, in moments, in present time? Would we live differently with this expectation? How would we live into it?
What would the world be like, if we behaved as if the second coming is happening in and through us? What would our community, our church be like, if we behaved as if the second coming is happening in and through us? What would we expect of ourselves? What would others expect of us? How might we shout “Hosanna” to God’s Grace and Presence? Amen
Sermon by Oralee Stiles given at Meridian United Church of Christ, Wilsonville, Oregon on April 1, 2012